Universal closure

ABSTRACT

A universal closure panel adaptable for use with a variety of different sized drinking glasses, jars, and other small household receptacles to form a liquid-tight seal, particularly when employing the receptacle as a utensil for mixing beverage ingredients by hand-shaking.

United States Patent Tower [151 3,655,089 [451 Apr.ll, 1972 [541UNIVERSAL CLOSURE [72] Inventor: Horace L. Tower, Darien, Conn.

[73] Assignee: General Foods Corporation, White Plains,

[22] Filed: June 8,1970

[21] Appl.No.: 44,506

[52] U.S. Cl. ..220/42 A, 2 l 5/100.5,220/24 B, 220/42 E [51] Int. Cl...B65d 41/16 [58] Field of Search ..220/23, 24 R, 42 A, 42 C, 42 D,220/42 E, 24 B; 215/100.5

[5 6] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,736,536 2/1956 Banowitz..220/24 X I a v u a I 111111111415 IIIIIIgI I/ III];

3,355,056 11/1967 Fisch ..220/42 A 893,469 7/1908 Essmulier ..220/24 BUX 1,361,348 12/1920 Pfisterer ..220/29 X 2,955,722 10/ l 960 Antonious..215/100.5 3,141,567 7/1964 Schearer ..220/42 C X Primary Examiner-M.Henson Wood, Jr.

Assistant Examiner-Michael Y. Mar

Attorney-Howard J. Newby, Bruno P; Struzzi and Daniel J. Donovan [57]ABSTRACT 2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures K4 iliitllsiii:

PATENTEUAPR 1 1 I972 IIIIIIHI/I EIIII Ill" JE.E fi

ATTORNEY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention Thepresent invention relates, in general, to closures for receptacles. Inparticular, the invention is directed to a paneltype closure which isadaptable to meet the varied size requirements to enclose the topopening of drinking glasses or other similar small householdreceptacles.

2. Description of the Prior Art Frequently, in many households, it isdesired to prepare a single serving of a beverage or other relativelysmall amounts of blended liquids. Chocolate milk, milk shakes, frozenorange juice, and eggnog are typical examples of such beverages whichare at their best when consumed immediately after being thoroughly mixedby vigorous shaking. Heretofore, in order to obtain a single servingquantity of a thoroughly blended beverage, it has been necessary to mixthe beverage contents in a shaker or blender and then transfer themixture to the receptacle intended for drinking purposes. Thus, toobtain a small amount of blended beverage, it has required theinefficient use of a blender with a resultant clean-up chore ofconsiderable magnitude.

One solution to the problem is to temporarily convert the tumbler ordrinking glass to a shaker for mixing a single serving quantity of thebeverage immediately prior to consumption. Unfortunately, not only dodrinking glasses come in many styles and sizes, but they are notordinarily provided with closures. There is, therefore, a need for adevice which is designed and constructed to serve as a liquid-tightclosure for a variety of different sized drinking glasses or similarsmall household receptacles, particularly for the purpose of convertingthese receptacles into small hand-held shakers to blend a beverage justprior to use or consumption.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the inventionto provide a closure for drinking glasses, tumblers and similar smallhousehold receptacles.

It is another object of the invention to provide a closure which isadaptable to receptacles of different open-end size of a pre-deterrninedrange of openings, and which will efiect a liquid-tight seal for each ofthese receptacles.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a resilientpanel-type closure for converting drinking glasses and similarreceptacles of various sizes within a pre-determined range of open-endsize to hand-held shakers for mixing single serving amounts of beveragesprior to consumption or for culinary or other household purposes.

Briefly, the closure of the invention is a panel or lid-type closurewhich, when placed and held over the opening of a container permits thecontainer or receptacle to be vigorously hand-shaken without seepage orspillage of the contents therein. The salient feature of the inventionis the multiplicity of concentric grooves or channels formed in thesurface of the face of the closure. The plurality of grooves ordepressions in the surface of the closure is constructed to assure aliquid-tight seal between the rim or lip defining the receptacle openingand the closure panel surface. The multiplicity of concentric grooves ordepressions assures a mating of the closure and the container wherebyone of the circular grooves corresponds sufficiently to the containeropening dimensions to admit and cooperate with the lip or edge of thecontainer to form a liquid-tight seal when the closure is hand-held tothe container and the combination and liquid contents therein arehandshaken.

The aforementioned and other objects and features of the invention willbecome manifest upon consideration of the following detailed descriptionin conjunction with the accompanying drawing illustrative of preferredembodiments of the invention wherein like reference characters areemployed to designate like parts in the specification and throughout theseveral views.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a plan view of the panel-typeclosure of the invention illustrating the plurality of concentricgrooves in the surface of the closure which contacts the receptacle rim.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical section taken sub stantiallyalong line A-A of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a vertical section of an alternate embodiment of the inventionillustrating a closure having a series of concentric grooves on one faceof a different width than the concentric grooves on the opposite face.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical sectional substantially takenalong the same line as line A-A of FIG. 1 but showing an alternateconfiguration of the grooves.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical section taken along substantially thesame line as A-A of FIG. 1 and showing a second alternate configurationof the grooves in detail.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The closure of the inventionconsists of a semi-rigid panel of resilient material which fits snuglyand removably over the lip defining-aperature of a receptacle. Whenhand-held against the lip of the container, a liquid-tight seal iseffected and the drinking glass or similar open-mouth vessel isconverted to a shaker for mixing milk shakes or other recipes requiringshaking or agitation to ensure proper blending.

The closure is preferably constructed of material which is inert tofoods generally and especially to liquid foods. Plastic materials, suchas polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, andpolytetrafluoroethylene are among the materials suitable forconstructing the panel closure of the invention. Other plastic orrubber-based materials which are used for conventional householdequipment can also be used as materials of construction for the closure.

The term semi-rigid used in this specification is intended to mean aclosure which may be slightly flexed when placed over the aperature ofthe receptacle and depressed at its center portion by finger pressure.The term resilient as used to designate the materials of construction ofthe closure of the invention is meant to mean a material which can beimpermanently deformed to a degree sumcient to accommodate minorirregularities in the contacting surface of the rim or lip of thereceptacle and also to accommodate slight mismatching of container rimdimensions with the geometry of the closest corresponding sized groovein the face of the closure contacting the receptacle as will bedescribed in more detail hereinafter.

Referring now to the drawing, it will be seen that there is illustratedin FIG. 1 a panel-type closure which is generally designated as (10).FIG. 1 shows the container-contacting surface of the closure as beingcorrugated substantially throughout the entire surface with amultiplicity of channels (12) alternately disposed between narrow wallridges (14).

As shown in greater detail in FIG. 2, the width of the grooves (12) isselected so as to be slightly smaller than the wall thickness of anaverage drinking glass. Since the grooves are in close proximity to eachother, the walls (14) separating the grooves are relatively narrow. Thenarrow walls (14) of resilient material are, therefore, deformable tothe extent the lip of the container to which the closure is applied,even though not exactly matching the closest correctly sized groove, canreadily be accommodated by the deformation of the narrow resilient wall.In effect, the side walls (14) and the bight surface (12A) defining thegroove (12) mate with the rim of the container to form a liquid-tightseal when the disc is held in place with a slight amount of forcebearing on its upper surface.

The closure of the invention is sufficiently flexible to be affixed tothe rim of the receptacle by a snap action of the walls defining theappropriate groove in the contacting face of the disc.

The overall thickness of the resilient material of construction of theclosure and the thinnest of the walls defining the grooves in thecorrugated face provide a flexibility to the closure which pennitsmating the closure and receptacle by placing it on top of the receptaclerim and slightly flexing the central portion. in so doing, the rim ofthe container will be admitted into the closest matching groove as oneor both of the narrow walls defining the groove are slightly displacedand then snap back to snugly grip the rim.

FIG. 3 illustrates a closure according to the invention having thecapability of accommodating a wider range of receptacle rim sizes thanthat of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2. The embodiment of the inventionas shown in FIG. 3 is a panel closure with both face surfaces corrugatedwith a multiplicity of closely adjacent concentric grooves. The grooveslocated on one surface have a larger width than those on the opposingsurface; thus, provision is made for the use of the closure with thickrimmed tumblers, jars, or similar thick walled small householdreceptacles as well as for receptacles having usual wall thickness.

An alternate method of configurating the wall structure separating theconcentric grooves in the corrugated surface of the closure is shown inFIG. 4. As shown, the grooves are undercut such that each wallterminates in a flange (16) of flexible material which extends part wayover the adjacent grooves. The flexible flange portion of the wallsserves to further assure contact between the closure and the receptaclerim to make a liquid-tight seal, especially when there is a disparitybetween groove and container-lip geometry. In this construction of theinvention, the grooves can be of sufficient width to accommodate thethickest walled receptacle anticipated to be closed and yet will form aliquid-tight seal with thin-walled receptacles because of the contactingaction of the flexible flanges.

FIG. 5 illustrates a second alternate of closure groove formation. Asshown, the corrugated surface of the closure is comprised of amultiplicity of concentric grooves having one defining wall (16A)beveled so as to intersect the adjoining vertical wall (168) at itsbase. Preferably, the beveled wall (16A) is formed with a slight concavecurvature. The arcuate beveled wall of the groove abuts the rim of thereceptacle and, when pressed against it, is deformably wedged againstthe receptacle rim thereby assuring a liquid-tight seal.

While the foregoing has illustrated and described what is nowcontemplated to be the best mode of carrying out the invention, theconstructions are, of course, subject to modification without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention, such as the panel beingsquare or rectangular in overall dimensions and/or having a tab forhanging on a hook. Therefore, it is not desired to restrict theinvention to the particular fonns of construction illustrated anddescribed, but to cover all modifications that may fall withinthe scopeof the appended claims.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent 15:

l. A one-piece universal closure for hand-held application upon the opentop end of a receptacle, such as a drinking glass and adapted to meetvaried requirements of receptacle aperture size comprising a lid in theform of a panel of semi-rigid resilient material having the receptaclerim contacting face thereof uniformly corrugated in a concentricpattern, the grooves of the concentric corrugations of the closuresurface being formed by undercutting the adjacent walls whereby thewalls terminate in a flat flange section.

2. A one-piece universal closure for hand-held application upon the opentop end of a receptacle, such as a drinking glass and adapted to meetvaried requirements of receptacle aperture size comprising a lid in theform of a panel of semi-rigid resilient material having the receptaclerim contacting face thereof uniformly corrugated in a concentricpattern, the grooves of the concentric corrugations of the closure facebeing formed by contacting one defining wall with an arcuate bevelterminating at the base of the opposite defining wall.

1. A one-piece universal closure for hand-held application upon the opentop end of a receptacle, such as a drinking glass and adapted to meetvaried requirements of receptacle aperture size comprising a lid in theform of a panel of semi-rigid resilient material having the receptaclerim contacting face thereof uniformly corrugated in a concentricpattern, the grooves of the concentric corrugations of the closuresurface being formed by undercutting the adjacent walls whereby thewalls terminate in a flat flange section.
 2. A one-piece universalclosure for hand-held application upon the open top end of a receptacle,such as a drinking glass and adapted to meet varied requirements ofreceptacle aperture size comprising a lid in the form of a panel ofsemi-rigid resilient material having the receptacle rim contacting facethereof uniformly corrugated in a concentric pattern, the grooves of theconcentric corrugations of the closure face being formed by contactingone defining wall with an arcuate bevel terminating at the base of theopposite defining wall.